Thursday, August 30, 2012

Florida crime headlines of the 1960s were dominated by the
capers of Jack “Murph the Surf” Murphy. Born in 1938, prodigy violinist, surfing
champ and stuntman Murphy was convicted of a New York jewel heist and later,
the murder of one of two women found bludgeoned to death in Broward County’s
Whiskey Creek waterway.

Murphy, along with robbery mastermind Allan Kuhn, and Roger
Clark were nabbed a few days after their 1964 theft of the 563-carot Star of
India, the Midnight Sapphire, the de Long Ruby and about 20 other gems from New York's American Museum of Natural History. Poor security was faulted. The trio left
their fingerprints all over a window and display case, leading to their arrest.

A few months later, an anonymous tip led police to the uninsured
Star of India sapphire at a Trailways Bus station locker in Miami. The de Long
Ruby was recovered in September 1965 in a phone booth near the Palm Beach
Gardens exit off the turnpike. Businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur paid a
$25,000 ransom for the historic jewel “as a public service.”

Murphy and Kuhn, who were living at Brickell Town House in
Miami at the time of the heist, were sentenced to three years. They
were released two and a half years later for good behavior. Murph’s good behavior did not extend past his
release.

On Dec. 8, 1967 the bludgeoned bodies of two women, Terry
Rae Frank, 24 and Annelie Mohn, 21 were found in Whiskey Creek, south of Port
Everglades. The California secretaries were involved in a securities scam; prosecutors
suggested Murphy and accomplices did not want to share proceeds with the women.
The glamorous playboy was convicted in 1968 and sentenced to life for the
crime.